Over 70 Dogs Hit By Illness Allegedly Due To Dog Food

Newsroom

Posted on May 01, 2018
by Olivia Esveld

Dozens of dogs around the country have become affected by a debilitating and incurable disease with a popular pet food believed to be the cause.

Advance Dermocare, owned by global food and confectionary company Mars, are being investigated after Melbourne University confirmed that 74 cases of megaesophagus had been recorded. In all of these cases, the dogs had consumed Advance Dermocare dog food.

At the end of last month, an outbreak of megaesophagus cases led to the recall of Advance Dermocare dry dog food.

This rare illness causes the oesophagus in dogs to swell, resulting in a loss of ability to move food down to the stomach.

Melbourne University have said that it could take a few months to determine whether the brand of dog food was solely to blame for the condition.

The manufacturer of Advance Dermocare has also not found a root cause of the illness in their own investigation, but they have offered to pay for the vet bills of those affected.

The megaesophagus condition can not be cured and in some cases it can be fatal. An investigation by ABC’s 7.30 found that in eight cases, dogs with the illness had to be euthanised as they could not longer swallow properly.

Victoria Police were first to alert Mars Petcare about a potential issue with their product in December last year after nine police dogs, who had been fed Advance Dermocare, were diagnosed with the terrible illness. One of these dogs had to be euthanised.

Melbourne University was enlisted to assist police last month who brought on the Australian Veterinary Association to help get vets to come forward with various cases of megaesophagus across Australia.

A recall of the pet food came after vets revealed the huge number of cases that were linked to Advance Dermocare pet food.